Customer Reviews

Deadwood: Music From HBO Original Series

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As a fan of the series Deadwood, I found this soundtrack CD to be both satisfying on its own merits and a successful evocation of the spirit of the series. It contains a lot of authentic American music that has the traditional feeling appropriate to the Old West setting of the show. There's gospel, folk, country, blues, and many pieces of miscellaneous instrumental music. It's telling that when the music producers wanted a true-sounding version of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken," they went to the source, June Carter Cash. I also like the fact that they filled their show and this disc with many excellent songs by relatively unknown artists like Mark Lee Scott and Michael Sheehy. However, I think my very favorite music from the CD are some of the instrumentals, especially the themes by Gustavo Santaolallo and the great Michael Brook. In between the music, there's also a great deal of dialogue samples from the show -- and that's what gives the CD its parental advisory label. (The presence of strong language in those dialogue samples will be no surprise to anyone who has seen Deadwood!)

What a great treat! This is just like the show itself: comes out of nowhere, takes you for a wild ride and leaves you just grinning stupidly. An exhilarating compilation of blues, country, old Americana, a capella singing, atmospheric instrumental pieces, plus snippets of dialogue, including the Words of Wisdom from Al "Swedgin", surely the greatest and most complex villain to appear on our TV screens in ages. His little speech about "what life is" is just the thing you need when life gets you down- its uplifting effect is only compared to that of the pot of stew scene in Clint Eastwood's "Joe Kidd." Calamity Jane singing and cursing through "Row row row your boat" is another great moment.
My only tiny little complaint is that some excellent pieces are way too short- the title music, for example, but then there's no arguing with this soundtrack's flow. If you look at the song titles- some of which you may know, like The Circle by June Carter Cash, it may seem like a strange motley group, but the whole thing works like a snake charm- I find that every time I play the first track, I end up listening to the whole CD again and again.
Now, this is not for the faint hearted- if you don't like cuss words, look elsewhere. I don't quite get the complaints about the swearing on the show- this surely comes from the people who thought that the brutal and realistic rape scene in the Sopranos was "too unpleasant"- but hey, just be warned that this is not Nickleodeon TV.
Welcome to Deadwood!

Since Carnivale is in such dire straits, I've really gotten into this HBO show, which serves as a good replacement in my heart. For those not in the know, its a gritty, violent western that takes place in the gold-mining camp of Deadwood, where famous names like Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane traipse through. I knew I would enjoy the soundtrack, as it had a lot of blues and country stuff I was familiar with. June Carter Cash singing 'Will the Circle Be Unbroken' would turn even the most hardcore atheist into a believer, and the Bukka White and the Jelly Roll Morton tracks were great too, but there were so many other amazing surprises on it for me. Top song is called 'Hog of the Forsaken' and is this nuts piece of fiddle and yodel and lunatic lyrics. I loved it. There are other tracks on the CD that are good songs, but do not work within the context of the show, specifically 'Twisted Little Man', which doesn't sound very western at all. Still, a high quality selection of tracks, and the show soundbites on the disc, which contain more cussin' then Tarantino in the shower, are great too.

This review refers to "Deadwood Music From the HBO Original Series" - EXPLICIT CONTENT (CD/Lost Highway")

"Deadwood" fans...you will love and spend alot of time listening to this album that takes you right back in time to Deadwood,the rugged atmosphere and the tough bigger then life characters,the series is based on. Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, etc The selections are a great representation of the series and may have you wanting to watch it all over again(which by the way both season 1 and 2 look and sound marvelous on DVD).If you loved the series, it is like finding an "Old Friend"(Lyle Lovett)

This album is from Season 1 only. It has 23 tracks that not only have the great music by some great artists, but also includes some of the more memorable lines spoken by the actors(Ian McShane,Keith Carridine, etc). The tracks do not exactly follow the order of the episodes, but there is something from each one that depicts the storyline and the times.

The music mixes the sounds of the Old West,and some bluesy material, with the perfect scoring of this sometimes dark series.Opening with "No Law"(spoken), it then goes right into the Theme From Deadwood(at this point I already made plans to get my DVDs out for the night). Then you'll be treated to artists like June Carter Cash("Will the Circle Be Unbroken"),Lyle Lovett("Old Friend") and Jelly Roll Morton doing his rendition of "Stars and Stripes Forever". Also included are a great blues number(from the episode"Plague") "High Fever Blues" by Bukka White, a beautiful ballad, "Twisted Little Man" by Michael Sheehy, and some fabulous instrumentals ,vocal solos, and wonderful guitar work..See buying info for complete track listings.

As I stated at the beginning of this review. This CD is the explicit lyrics edition. And just as with the series, it's is no one you want to play around children or those who may cringe at four letter words(and some much longer). If you loved the series though, that was a big part of what made it seem so authentic. There is a "clean" edition if you prefer,Deadwood: Music from the HBO Original Series. Basically the short spoken tracks are cut out from the album of the "clean" edition. The ASIn for this one(explicit) is B00076YPUI. So in case Amazon decides to lump the reviews together, you may want to check that number in the product info to make sure you are ordering the one you want.

This CD has a running time of a little more then 45 minutes. The sound quality is excellent.Even the old recordings sound great. A booklet with the tracks, artists and the episode it came from is included.

"There's blood on the floor..."(Bullock)
"Yeah - uh - I'm gonna get to that"(Al 'pardon my French' Swearengen)

Saddle Up and Enjoy the ride, with music from "Deadwood".....Laurie

also available- the entire tv series @:Deadwood: The Complete Series
or individual discs with a couple of episodes:
Deadwood: The First Season, Volume One

Deadwood: Episode 3 - 'Reconnoittering the Rim', Episode 4 - 'Here Was a Man'

Deadwood: Episode 5 - 'The Trial of Jack McCall', Episode 6 - 'Plague', Episode 7 - 'Bullock Returns to the Camp'

also recommended;
The Greatest Western Themes

I assumed that the cd would contain ALL misic from the series, unfortunatly they included dialogue from the series which in my opinion detracts for the content of the disc.

An excellent representation of the first season of Deadwood, fine music and dialog from the series.
Be aware of the harsh language on this CD!

The content was not worth the price of the CD.

The songs were not complete, only partialy played or sung. And the narative was unexpected and unwanted.

This CD really grew on me. When I listened to it for the first couple of times, I liked it okay, enjoyed the snippets of dialogue, but wasn't overwhelmed. Then a couple days later I punched it up on my iPod to listen to on my morning commute. And I can't seem to stop listening to it. The songs flow so gorgeously into one another that they create a great aural picture of America.

I guess it's too much to hope for a second and third volume of this CD, to incorporate the songs from the other two seasons. But if there were, I'd buy them in a heartbeat.

The music for Deadwood is outstanding! Unlike most television, which uses "mood music" to telegraph actions (can we not all figure out that something dreadful is about to happen?) Deadwood avoids that trite pap and uses one superb song at the end of each episode. Whoever chooses the music has a real ear for what fits and for music generally. This is not schlock. This is not crap. This is real music, performed by people who can play their instruments and sing - not only on key, but musically. We would recommend this cd unconditionally - and we rarely feel able to do that. Enjoy!

Other reviewers have described this CD of music from Deadwood's first season in excellent detail, so it's enough for me to say that this collection is beautiful and evocative, plaintive, tense and saucy by turns.